EA Explains SimCity Server Issues, Offers Free Game

With the ongoing clusterfuck that is the SimCity launch, EA is trying to make up for it by giving everyone who has started or tried to play SimCity between launch day and the 18th. No word on what games you get to choose from but it will be a “PC download game from the EA portfolio.” On the 18th EA will be emailing users instructions on how to redeem this free game. So what about the server issues?

“The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected. More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.” Really? The invite only beta that allowed you to play for only an hour wasn’t as much drag on the servers as the launch? I was in both betas and could only play a couple of times each before I got bored and stopped playing. I would think that companies would go off of pre-order numbers and not beta numbers because this happens with every game that has huge pre-orders.

You can read more about it on EA’s blog, here. I’m sure EA isn’t really worried about this because as soon as everything starts working as it should people will stop writing about it and it will all blow over. I though will not let it down and it will be brought up in every future conversation regarding always-on DRM.